The skybox in various places of the game looks noticeably crisper and more realistic. We were also able to use more high-resolution light maps, which improved the accuracy of the lighting.
Plus, the increased memory compared to PS4 and the improvement of the Non Streamable Mip Map, which ties into the response of the aforementioned question, also helped to load textures. However, we still didn’t have enough disc capacity with FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE to include a high-quality format and high-resolution textures.Īnd so, we integrated Oodle Texture, and by using it in combination with Oodle Kraken, we were able to achieve a smaller file size on the PS5 version, even taking the higher resolution textures into account. Hano: In the PlayStation 4 version, we had to forgo using a higher-quality format and high-resolution textures due to memory and disc capacity restrictions. Can you talk about the work that went into improving those streaming issues using Unreal Engine? Not only have loading screens been minimized, but textures load much faster, too, which is especially evident in the Sector 7 slum area of the game. This title was developed based on UE 4.18, so it required some changes, but because of the implementations, we were able to shorten the time to about two seconds, so I feel that this brought improvement that was well worth the investment. So, we integrated Unversioned Property Serialization and IOStore, which were introduced with Unreal Engine 4.25. While we were exploring options for further improvement, we realized the loader was inefficient.
Through these efforts, we were able to go from approximately 12 second load times down to six. Instead, time slicing and CPU load became the causes for longer load times.īecause of that, we improved the load flow by doing things like putting in unique serialization so that it would lessen the load during deserialization in areas especially prone to bottlenecks. Lead Technical Programmer Tomohito Hano: With PS5 having an SSD, I/O speeds were no longer a bottleneck. Was there a lot of work involved in optimizing the game to load more quickly on PS5's NVME SSD? These were all very meaningful experiences for our developers working on our next title.įINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE features dramatically faster loading times on PlayStation 5. I was able to learn several things, like how much load is feasible using 3K and 4K rendering resolutions, or what the threshold is for loading high-quality assets while allowing players to play without stress, since the I/O bottleneck is now gone due to the implementation of the high-speed SSD. On the technical side, what were your major goals coming into the next-gen update?Ĭo-Director Naoki Hamaguchi: My biggest goal was to get a first-hand feel of the performance of the next-gen hardware leading up to the next installment of FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE.
The trio discuss how they significantly bolstered texture quality, shortened load times, and improved lighting and shadows while maintaining smooth, consistent performance.ĭigital Foundry called FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE "the most satisfying PS5 upgrade seen to date". To see how Square Enix took advantage of Sony’s next-gen console, we interviewed Square Enix Co-Director Naoki Hamaguchi, Lead Rendering Programmer Shuichi Ikeda, and Lead Technical Programmer Tomohito Hano. As a result of these optimizations, Digital Foundry proclaimed that it is the “ FF7 remake we were meant to see.” The game now offers the option to run at 4K resolution in graphics mode or at 60 frames per second in performance mode, both of which offer increased visual fidelity over the title’s original release. More recently, Square Enix released FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE INTERGRADE, which takes advantage of PlayStation 5’s next-gen hardware to deliver heightened visuals and graphics. When FINAL FANTASY VII REMAKE was released last year, it garnered numerous accolades, including winning Best RPG at The Game Awards 2020.